Month: August 2021

Internet Governance FCC Proposes $5.1 Million Fine For Anti-Voting Robocallers: The proposed fine, which is the largest to date under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, is against two right-wing conspiracy theorists who orchestrated over 1,100 robocalls designed to convince members of the Black community not to vote by mail by telling recipients that vote-by-mail data would be used to surface old warrants and collect debts.

Privacy UK Plans To Revamp Privacy Rules For Post-Brexit: As Britain plans to welcome a new Information Commissioner in November, it also plans to overhaul its privacy rules by moving away from EU-style regulations in favor of rules that prioritize “innovative and responsible uses of data,” and that are designed to “boost growth, especially for startups and small firms, speed up scientific discoveries and improve public services.” Federal Government Plans Increased Use Of Facial Recognition: Despite growing concerns about the technology—and outright bans of it in some locales—a new report by the Government Accountability Office reveals that at least ten federal agencies plan to expand its use by 2023, including to monitor threats and pursue criminals.

Information Security and Cyberthreats Companies Pledge Billions To Strengthen Cybersecurity: In the wake of recent high-profile cyberattacks, leaders from some of the nation’s biggest companies, including Big Tech, met with President Biden in a cybersecurity summit and committed billions to improve cybersecurity across the economy.

Intellectual Property Popular Discord Music Bot Groovy Will Shut Down After YouTube Crackdown: The Groovy Bot, which is popular on the Discord platform and which lets Discord users play music from YouTube videos on their servers, will shut down at the end of August after receiving notice from YouTube that the bot violates its terms.

Free Expression and Censorship Facebook Promotes FDA-Approved Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine: The social network announced that it will start “sharing messages across Facebook in both English and Spanish” about the vaccine’s approval, and will also update its policies to allow for the removal of claims that there are no FDA-approved vaccines.  OnlyFans Reverses Ban On Adult Content: After announcing earlier this week that it would ban sexually explicit content starting October 1, the content-sharing site made popular by sex workers reversed course; the ban and its subsequent reversal are purportedly tied to banks’ attitudes toward supporting sex work.

On the Lighter Side Clip-Art Rock NFT Sells For $1.3 Million: An EtherRock, a brand of NFT that has been around since 2017, recently sold for the equivalent of $1.3 million, highlighting a second surge in NFT popularity that has major brands such as Visa and Taco Bell joining the game.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance Senators Call Upon FTC To Investigate Tesla’s Self-Driving Claims: Just days after the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration opened an investigation into accidents between Teslas and emergency vehicles, two senators have asked the Commission to examine whether the company has “overstated the capabilities of its vehicles” to perform fully autonomously.

Privacy Taliban Seizes U.S. Military-Used Biometric Devices: Some fear that the devices, which store iris scans, fingerprints, and biographical information from thousands of Afghan nationals and coalition forces, could be used by the Taliban to identify and retaliate against Afghans who assisted the United States during its 20-year presence in the country; similarly, U.S. agencies have begun removing content from their websites and social media channels that the Taliban might view as evidence of collaboration.

Information Security and Cyberthreats 47 Million Customer Records Exposed In T-Mobile Data Breach: The names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers of over 40 million former or prospective customers and nearly 8 million current customers were stolen; although the stolen files did not include “phone numbers, account numbers, PINs or passwords,” the stolen information could be used to create accounts in another’s name or to hijack existing accounts. Poly Network Offers $600 Million Thief A Job: A week after falling victim to theft, the blockchain company offered the thief, known as Mr. White Hat, $500,000 in Ethereum as a bug bounty award, as well as a job as the company’s Chief Security Advisor; Mr. White hat, who perpetrated the hack for fun and has yet to return $238 million of the stolen funds, hasn’t indicated whether he’ll accept the position.

Free Expression and Censorship Taliban Social Media Campaigns Defy Bans, Create Complications For Social Media Companies: As new social media content from the group has ramped up as it has taken control of Afghanistan, social media companies struggle to enforce bans on content from the group, and are attempting to gauge whether world governments might officially recognize the group as Afghanistan’s leadership. Facebook Cracks Down On The “Disinformation Dozen”: A month after the White House publicly acknowledged a report finding that twelve individuals are responsible for nearly 65 percent of Covid-19 misinformation on the platform, a Facebook spokesperson announced that the platform had removed three dozen pages, groups, and Instagram accounts associated with the twelve individuals for violating Facebook policies.

Practice Note Binance Faces Unconventional Arbitration For May 2021 Outage: After a significant outage that led to millions of dollars in losses for over 700 customers affected the cryptocurrency platform earlier this year, a group of plaintiffs has commenced in an international business arbitration court proceedings funded by a blockchain-traded litigation firm.

On the Lighter Side Minecraft Alternative Helps Children With Autism Connect: Autcraft, a version of the popular online building game Minecraft designed specifically for children with autism and their families, has been observed by researchers to help autistic children practice social skills and make friends.

Olivier Sylvain Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance Senate Rejects Cryptocurrency Tax Amendment To Infrastructure Bill: The amendment would have clarified and narrowed the definition of a “broker” to exclude entities such as miners and stakers from gains-reporting requirements; the proposal failed to reach the unanimous Senate vote required to pass.

Privacy TikTok Adds More Privacy Features For Teens: After making the accounts of users under 16 private by default earlier this year, the popular video-sharing app rolled out additional privacy features for teenagers, including turning direct messaging off by default, imposing limits on times of day when teens will receive push notifications from the app, and providing just-in-time privacy notices when certain app functionalities are used.

Information Security and Cyberthreats Hackers Steal, Return, Hundreds Of Millions In Cryptocurrency: Earlier this week, the hackers pulled off one of the biggest crypto heists to date to steal over $600 million in crypto tokens by exploiting a vulnerability in the digital contracts used by Poly Network, a company that facilitates crypto transactions across blockchains; the hacker, who is “not very interested in money” and perpetrated the hack “for fun,” has already returned $260 million.

Intellectual Property Apple, Corellium, Settle Copyright Suit: Apple alleged in the suit that the company infringed its copyrights by replicating Apple’s operating systems and apps for security testing, while Corellium argued that the suit was an effort by Apple to smother a competitor; the settlement’s terms are confidential, but Corellium said in a statement that it would continue to offer its virtual Apple systems.

Free Expression and Censorship Facebook Oversight Board Orders Restoration Of Post Critical Of Myanmar’s Relationship With China: The post was originally removed because it contained a Burmese word that Facebook content moderators determined amounted to hate speech against Chinese people; upon review, the Board found that the term, which can have multiple meanings depending on context, was instead used as a reference to the Chinese state and thus did not violate Facebook’s policies. Senator Paul And Representative Greene Suspended From YouTube For Spreading Covid-19 Misinformation: Each lawmaker had their account suspended for one week after posting videos casting doubt on the efficacy of masks and vaccines in curbing the spread of the virus.

Practice Note Amazon Will Compensate Customers In Products Liability Cases: In a blog post, the company announced that it will begin offering up to $1,000 to customers who suffer property damage or personal injury as a result of defective products sold by third-party merchants on its marketplace; the policy comes in the wake of recent lawsuits that could potentially result in Amazon facing greater liability for selling defective goods.

On the Lighter Side Swipe Right On Your New Pet: An animal shelter in Germany is hoping to increase pet adoptions by creating Tinder profiles for potential adoptees (complete with professional headshots).

Olivier Sylvain Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance SEC Chair Asks Congress To Grant Agency More Crypto Oversight Authority: Citing concerns about “fraud, scams, and abuse” that could hurt investors, Chair Gary Gensler asked Congress to expand the SEC’s authority to oversee cryptocurrency exchanges and other platforms that facilitate crypto transactions.

Privacy Zoom Settles Privacy Suit For $85 Million: The settlement resolves claims that the videoconferencing platform shared users’ data with Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn without their consent, and allowed hackers to “Zoombomb” meetings. NYC’s Proof-Of-Vaccination Requirement Stokes Privacy Concerns: The City’s recent announcement that patrons will soon be required to offer proof that they’ve received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to enter certain businesses has been met with concern by privacy advocates, who caution that the use of digital vaccine passports threatens the privacy of personal information and could help build a “global map of where people are going.”

Information Security and Cyberthreats Report Details Google Firings For Data Misuse: A leaked internal document revealed that since 2018, the tech company has fired almost 100 employees for improperly using or sharing the data of users or Google colleagues.

Intellectual Property Australian Court Ruling Opens The Door For AI To Be Patent Inventor: A decision by the country’s Federal Court found that because Australian law has no requirement that an inventor be human, the Commissioner of Patents erred in deciding that AI cannot be an inventor; the decision has been criticized as a form of judicial activism that invites an influx of junk patents.

Free Expression and Censorship Facebook Bans Accounts Of New York University Researchers: The academics are behind the NYU Ad Observatory project, which collects and studies data on political advertisements; the company defended the bans by arguing that the researchers’ methods, which include using a browser plugin to automatically extract data, violate its terms, and also that the bans are required by an FTC order arising from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Practice Note Man Violates No-Contact Order By Renaming Playlists Shared With Estranged Wife: An Ohio court held that the man violated the order, which prohibited him from contacting his wife by any means, by attempting to correspond with her by renaming playlists on a Napster account still shared by the former couple; the case is an example of how seemingly-innocuous digital functionalities can facilitate stalking or harassment.

On the Lighter Side TikTok Takes Flight: American Airlines is now helping people indulge their TikTok addictions by offering passengers 30 free minutes of in-flight access to the app.

Olivier Sylvain Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP